genealogy

NARA in the News…. and What You Can Do

clairekluskens Federal Employees, federal funding, Finding Records at NARA, genealogy, NARA, National Archives and Records Administration, records access, records preservation , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has been in the news quite a bit lately.

Support for “Save Our National Archives” – San Bruno and Chicago Regions

On 24 August 2026, Representative Kevin Mullin held a press conference about NARA’s proposed closure of its San Bruno, California, facility. In addition, 37 Members of Congress, including several from the Midwest, signed a joint letter to NARA about their concerns that closure of the facility would result in an undue burden (restriction) to public access to the records, potentially result in loss of dedicated knowledgeable public servants who have provided reference services on these records, and risk damage or even destruction to the records. Meanwhile, in an undated 2026 post entitled “Researcher Updates” NARA outlined where it plans to move records from the San Bruno and Chicago Regional Archives.

What can you do? Email (or better yet, write and call) your Congressman and Senators about your opposition to NARA closing public research facilities at San Bruno and Chicago. Find information and talking points here: https://www.saveournationalarchives.org/take-action.

Confirmation of Bradford P. Wilson as 12th Archivist of the United States

On 7 August 2026, the U.S. Senate confirmed the nomination of Bradford P. Wilson to be the 12th Archivist of the United States (AOTUS). On 21 August 2026, AOTUS Wilson sent the following message to NARA employees:

Greetings to all. As you may have heard, I was nominated by President Donald J. Trump and am now sworn in as the 12th Archivist of the United States. Though I am not a stranger to Senate-confirmed positions, I am especially honored and humbled by this appointment. As with the institutions and programs I have been fortunate to lead, I shall be laser-focused on serving the governing mission of NARA. Put simply, NARA’s mission is to serve the American people as our nation’s record keepers. The great historian, David McCullough, referred to the collected records of the National Archives as “one of the wonders of our country, the richest, most enthralling documentation we have as a nation of who we are, what we have achieved, our adventures, and what we stand for.” As such, it is imperative that those records be made available to the American people, to whom they belong. Acquisition, preservation, and organization of our nation’s records, so as to provide access to the American public, researchers, and our government, are the heart of NARA’s activities.

And your talents, experience, expertise, and commitment to your craft are the reason that Americans continue to have affection for the place of the National Archives in American government and culture. I know that our agency is beset with great challenges in achieving its goals. That should only add to our sense of common purpose and inspire us to do our very best, together, to meet those challenges.

I’ll spare you my thoughts on leadership, which I’ll daily attempt to illustrate by my actions. I’d rather begin by learning about the work you do and its relation to the statutory mission of NARA, which by law we must take as our guide. I look forward to working with you to move NARA to a new level of excellence.

Sincerely,
Bradford Wilson

It’s a reasonable sounding statement of support for preservation and access to federal records, but, as the saying goes, the proof will be in the pudding. The statutory missions of agencies are never spelled out in granular detail in Acts of Congress. See, for example, the National Archives and Records Administration Act of 1984 (Public Law 98-497). Additional guidance is given by federal laws applicable to all or most federal agencies as well as duly promulgated federal regulations, such as those for NARA, or applicable to all or most federal agencies. What is the concept for moving NARA to “a new level of excellence”?

What can you do? Pay attention to NARA press releases and social media posts from reputable sources, such as APG (https://www.facebook.com/AssociationofProfessionalGenealogists), NGS (https://www.facebook.com/ngsgenealogy), and others. 

NARA Proposal to Destroy Federal Civilian Official Personnel Files after 65 Years

On 10 July 2026, NARA posted a proposed change in the retention period for federal civilian employee Official Personnel Folders (OPFs) – posted on Regulations.gov as DAA-GRS-2026-0001 General Records Schedules National Archives and Records Administration General Records Schedule 2-2 – Employee Management Records Revision) (https://www.regulations.gov/document/NARA-26-0331-0008). Unfortunately, the public comment period ended 24 August 2026.

Federal civilian Official Personnel Folders (OPFs) can contain valuable genealogical information about a person’s government employment. Today, many OPFs for employees who left federal service before 1952 are archived at NARA. Later files generally remain under OPM control and are much harder to access. The 1952 cutoff was created for administrative purposes, not because the records on either side of that date have different historical value.

In 2025, NARA proposed making OPFs for employees separated through 31 December 1973 permanent records, but this schedule has apparently not yet been approved. The National Genealogical Society and the Records Preservation and Access Coalition (RPAC) support that proposal and call on NARA to sign that record schedule. RPAC seeks to:

• Preserve pre-1974 OPFs permanently.

• Make all employment years consistent with pre-1974 policy.

• Replace the arbitrary 1952 access cutoff with a rolling transfer of older civilian personnel files to NARA.

This is simple: federal civilian personnel files should become more accessible as they age—not disappear.

What can you do? Although the public comment period is over, the fight to preserve these records will not end. Email (or better yet, write and call) your Congressman and Senators about your opposition to NARA destroying federal civilian Official Personnel Files. Tell Congress that OPFs dated after 1952 have as much historical value as earlier dated records. Tell Congress why these records are meaningful to you. 

BLM Debuts New General Land Office Records Website

clairekluskens genealogy, land records, NARA--RG 49, records access , , , , , , , , , , ,

The Bureau of Land Management’s new version of the General Land Office Records (GLO Records) website is now online at https://glorecords.blm.gov/s/.

I liked the old website. It was easy to use. The data was laid out well. The different pages, tabs, etc., made sense. The color scheme was nice. Was it perfect? No. Nothing ever is. But it was very good and any complaints I had about it were fairly minor.

The “new” GLO Records website does not impress. At least not today.

I chose “Advanced Search” and conducted a few name searches. I found the people I expected. The search function worked well sometimes but not other times. I think it worked better with Chrome than Safari.

Many researchers who are unfamiliar with Federal land records will be easily tempted into entering a state and county and then be very disappointed when they “don’t find anything.” Experienced researchers know that those fields should “always” be left blank because you don’t know the state and county in which the patentee (the person who received the patent) chose to locate the land — and that state and county may have nothing to do with the warrantee (the person to whom the land warrant was issued in cases of patents issued on the basis of military service). Maybe it won’t matter, however. A search using a first name and surname with the “wrong” state resulted in the “right” patent being listed first out of 1,124,751 results. LOL. Only the first result was actually the correct result even though the “wrong” state is never mentioned in patent or associated data. (No, I was not searching for Smith.)

Saving a “results” webpage for one individual as a PDF resulted in page 1 (useless), page 2 (all the data), and page 3 (useless). I know how to only save page 2 as a PDF so that was annoying but not a big problem.

Downloading a PDF of the land patent image was painless and fast.

The “Related Documents” tab loaded quickly. “Related Documents” means documents for people to whom patents were issued in the same township, range, and section as your person of interest. However, there is no text to tell the researcher this, so I can imagine some people might think the “people” were related instead of the land being simply nearby to their person of interest. (Yes, of course, sometimes the people might also be related or from the same area back home.)

The “Search Using the Map” feature does not work. At least not today.

I did not log in with Login.gov so I have no comment on account features at this time.

It may be that the “new” GLO Records database/website is undergoing a “slow roll out” starting with basic features with additional features and content to be loaded over time. That approach allows for testing of the structure by real users in real time to make sure the current structure and data are stable. Then additional features are added in stages until it is all there. I make this observation because – several years ago – there was a different Federal agency that launched a new and improved website/database and it, too, was not impressive at launch – and was not impressive for months and months thereafter. Slowly, however, bells and whistles were added back in and now is pretty darn good. I hope that the same thing will eventually be said about the “new” GLO Records website.

That said, however, be sure to click the “contact us” link on the new GLO website and submit a “BLM Public Help Desk ticket” so that BLM learns about the problems you have with the new website. They need to hear from you.

NGS 2026 Family History Conference

clairekluskens African-American Genealogy and History, American Civil War (1861-65), census, Compiled Genealogy, genealogy, immigration, land records, law, law / legal research, maps, Modern Military Records, NARA, Native Americans, naturalization, records access, records preservation, Revolutionary War, War of 1812, women, World War I, World War II , , , , ,

It’s time to register for the National Genealogical Society’s 2026 Family History Conference at Fort Wayne, Indiana, May 27-30, 2026. With the theme of “America at 250” the conference features a wide range of speakers and topics that will help shine a light on the stories, communities, and research strategies that help us understand our nation’s past and as well as preserve our family histories for the future.

The added bonus is that Fort Wayne is the home of the incomparable Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center which has one of the largest research collections available, incorporating records from around the world.

See you in Fort Wayne!

HARPPing on History

clairekluskens federal funding, genealogy, HARPPing on History, NARA, National Archives and Records Administration, records access, records preservation , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

HARPPing on History is the official Substack (blog) of the Historical Archives and Preservation Project (HARP), which is an initiative led by the Organization of American Historians to ensure that U.S. history remains accessible, evidence-based, and accurate. I strongly invite all genealogists and persons interested in U.S. history to subscribe to it.

This week, professional genealogist Renée K. Carl, wrote an insightful article, “With NARA Funding Cuts, Access to America’s Memory is on the Chopping Block,” that I strongly suggest you read. NARA has been underfunded for decades. Meanwhile, the deluge of electronic and paper records continues – but the proposed budget for federal fiscal year 2026 (October 2025 to September 2026) includes a 10 percent overall cut and a staggering 33 percent cut to funding for electronic records programs. So…. what does that mean? It’s worse than you think. Funding for digital assets would plummet to 56 percent less than it was 20 YEARS ago – in fiscal year 2007. It also means that critical work needed on 250 years worth of paper records, such as preservation actions, description, preparation for digitization, and digitization, will slow to a crawl.

Did you know that a only a little over 3 percent of the 12 billion (and growing) estimated textual (paper) pages at NARA are digitized? NARA cannot do “more with less.” No one can do “more with less.” NARA can only do less with less funding.

Learn more and join the conversation in the free webinar, Fund America’s Stories–Advocacy and the National Archives, on Tuesday, October 7, 2025, at 3:00 ET, which will explore the vital role of the National Archives and Records Administration in preserving federal records and protecting access to America’s stories, learn about its origins, the Federal Records Act, the impact of proposed budget cuts, and how you can advocate for NARA’s future.